Music
Press
It’s tough when even the music critics can’t categorise your band. Having been called everything from country, jazz, folk, rock, punk, funk, disco, bluegrass to reggae the Injuns myspace coyly asserts pop/indie/ other, where the ‘other’ can only mean everything under the sun.
It is no mean feat then that they are turning people away at the door. Industry, friends and fans have come from all over, attracted by the driving beats, brass tomfoolery and general joyful raucous stramash. Leighton Jones and Hector MacInnes, (Mylo’s brother) corral the disparate pic’n’mix into the kind of intelligently dumb nuggets of pop Mika could only pray for.
If you want to marvel at their masterly musical technique, listen to the album. If you want to have your musical compass re-oriented, catch them live, as Skye sends its Injuns out into the world with a most auspicious start. - The List
One debut album, Lionel, It’s a Complicated World by the Injuns provides the right blend of originality and strong musicianship. Far from the hipper Glasgow or London, the band instead celebrated [the release] with their loyal fan base in a converted barn on Skye. Why? Hector MacInnes, co-creator, drummer and other assorted dutymaster for the Injuns, credits the high musical literacy of the island’s bar band aficionados for encouraging them during the early pubs gigs.
So what is the Injuns’s sound? Eclectic with a capital E!
Beginning with the explosive IYO, the mood suddenly turns from frenetic to a charged plaintive plea by the second track of Madeleine. Just when you think you have the Injuns’ sound down – it rears up and charges in from another direction. Is Shelia Invited?, a melody with a modicum of the macabre through references of "spiders in the caviar", and the brass rich pulsating Brady are perfect examples.
Infuse your summer with the Injuns, and banish boredom! - suite101.com
Injuns formed in Skye in 2003 before moving to Glasgow, bringing with them a refreshingly unfettered attitude to their music. Oblivious to zeitgeist and unbent by trends, Injuns have plundered the world’s songbook and crafted a simply wonderful collection of songs.
There’s only one word for that: honest. From the indie-rock chant of “IYO” to the lingering piano of “Caroline”—a song that sits easily beside Randy Newman’s tenderest ballads—the songs are allowed to be themselves. The spooky “Is Sheila Invited?” resembles the unacknowledged twin of Supertramp’s “Rudy” and the funk-stomp of “King Kong” joyously blends Herbie Hancock with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
And like all the best albums, by the time you’ve heard it once, it no longer sounds like all the things you thought it did. - I Am One Magazine
How do you begin to describe the music of Injuns, a thrilling young band who squeeze more ideas into one song than most bands manage on an album? "Bluegrass, reaggae and derelict dancehall in a hallucinogenic fury" is their own attempt. Here's mine: imagine if Billy Joel and Stephen Sondheim decided to try and make follk music together, but occasionally got distracted by a mutual love of hip-hop and Prefab Sprout. The result: a band who sound as if they would be equally at home writing a broadway musical as they would be playing at a ceilidh. The album in question is wonderfully eccentric. - The Scotsman
Unexpected and genuinely alive, this isn’t music for the chorus hunter but if you want an inventive, but not indulgent, groove then it can be found here. Reminiscent of Bowie’s early albums because this is how album tracks should sound, i.e. without the pressure to be a single.
Rocking. - Is This Music?
This debut is a densely influenced, multi-genre-encapsulating smorgasbord swerving from the accessible ‘Is Sheila Invited?’ and ‘IYO’ to the more out there Bowie-esque religious musings of ‘The Man Who Never Was’ and playful exuberance of ‘King Kong’. Like an entire iPod shuffled into one album, it’s perfect for silencing friends who complain that all new music sounds the same. - The List
It really is a joy to have a band attempt and succeed at sounding like themselves – Injuns make a triumphant pop music of their very own. - Vic Galloway (BBC Radio 1)
Discography
"Jake of Monterey" (Single, 2008, Vinyl and Download)
Injuns latest single, released with support from the Kopparberg Collective. A dark bluesy fusion of murder and madness which received national and regional airplay across Scotland.
"Lionel, It's A Complicated World" (Album, 2007, CD and download)
12 Tales tall and true, Injuns' debut album was one of the triumphs of Scotland's independent music scene in 2007. Receiving critical acclaim from The List, The Scotsman, Is This Music?, Metro and others, tracks from the album featured on BBC Radio 1, Radio Scotland and XFM among others. Accompanying it's promotion throughout 07 and 08 were a live 5 star review in the list and a month as featured artist and live performance at Glasgow's Apple Store.
Forming A Skin/Is Sheila Invited? (Single, 2006, CD)
Injuns second single combined 2006's catchiest organ licks with a lyrical trip down memory lane to kick the bins over... Listeners to BBC Radio's 'Rapal' programme voted 'Forming A Skin' their Song of the Year, seeing off other minor shortlisters such as The Automatic, The Killers and The View.
IYO/Brady (Single, 2005, CD)
Injuns first single was a double A side of the jumpy and inventive punk-folk-jazz-disco explosion that first broke them onto the Glasgow music scene. This single release took Injuns into the prestigious TBreak Competition, which Injuns won in '06, performing at T in the Park.
Photos
Bio
Genre-defying genius and explosive performances from Scotland’s young masters of songwriting innovation: With their imaginations strung out between the industrial grime of Glasgow, and the desolate beauty of their homes on the Isle of Skye, Injuns are, as The List put it, "perfect for silencing your friends who complain that all new music sounds the same."
Some treasures are way off the map…
Since Injuns broke cover in early 2007 with their debut Lionel, It’s A Complicated World, they have enjoyed the mixed blessing of being the black sheep of Scotland’s independent music scene. Critical success for that album and their intense live performances was followed by an acknowledgment that here was something different – a group of writers and performers that were determined to follow their own, unpaved path. With a typical overflow of ideas and a five star (The List) live ensemble, 2009 finds them in no mood for turning back…
Lionel…
Injuns debut album (March 2007) is a convention-defying record that blazes through as many styles and innovations in its 56 minutes as you would expect to find on a ‘best of’ collection. Playing host to a smorgasbord of strange tales and characters, Lionel… boils over with classical diversity and melodic brilliance, marking Injuns as pioneers on their own ocean, grappling for control of the creative ship.
On the road
A blisteringly tight line-up, Injuns have rocked everywhere from Glasgow’s dingy basements and remote village halls in the highlands, to venues such as the Barrowlands and major festival stages at Belladrum, T in the Park, T on the Fringe, Isle of Skye and Loopallu. Their electric performances have earned them a five star review from the list, and seen them called upon to support cult acts such as the Mystery Jets and Buck 65. More recently, they featured live in session for Apple at their store on Buchanan Street to air material from their forthcoming album alongside favourites from ‘Lionel’. In 2008, the band toured Scotland twice. First, with Kopparberg Cider, culminating in a performance at the Hydro Connect Festival, then in October with the TuneUp touring programme on a full 12 date tour of the nation.
Jake of Monterey
2008 also saw Injuns first recordings since Lionel… with the release of Jake of Monterey on Kopparberg’s Collective label. Receiving more good reviews, this single also saw Injuns develop a more coherent, if just as unusual, sound - and a darker edge in their songwriting.
For more information, please visit www.injuns.co.uk or contact:
Email: info@injuns.co.uk
Tel: hector on 07747148465
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